Autonomous Vehicle technology and planned communities

A recent article in Realtor Magazine highlights the excitement around the impact AV technology will have on planned communities.

“Prime real estate will also be unlocked for new home construction. Places once used for parking lots, auto dealerships, and gas stations will become obsolete with self-driving cars. That may free up prime real estate for housing ...Builders will be able to get significantly higher density, and consumers will be buying a home where 100 percent of the square footage is livable,” Rick Palacios, Jr. writes in a Sept. 4 article tiitled “How Driverless Cars will reshape housing?”http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2017/09/05/how-driverless-cars-will-reshape-housing

Closer to home, Disney World in Orlando is planning for self-driving busses from hotels to theme parks. Epcot Center was originally envisioned by Walt Disney as the first “smart city” and will likely stay on the cutting edge of AV technology, especially with the Florida SunTrax facility so close to the park.

In southwest Florida, Babcock Ranch designers are well along in their planning to use AV technology in a solar-powered town using autonomous shuttle runs to grocery stores and shopping centers; their plan is to enable residents to use apps on their phones to arrange group trips to the mall or single-person stops at the market. Their ultimate goal is for residents to realize they don’t need to own a car anymore and to treat “mobility as a service.”